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Hayley's 2016 Reading


Hayley

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Ooh I might look up The Mistletoe Bride, I'm looking for Halloweeny stuff at the moment :)

 

Yeah I think it would be a good one, I've only had time to read the first couple of stories so far but it seems really good, very psychological. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I finished The Mistletoe Bride a while ago and then forgot to review it  :blush2:  so here's a few quick thoughts...

 

The Mistletoe Bride by Kate Mosse - Psychological Folklore

 

The two words above basically sum up the content of the stories in this book. None of them are actually scary, though there are definitely some creepy moments and all are either based entirely on a story from folklore or are purely psychological exploration. In general, I enjoyed reading this, because I do like both folklore and things with a psychological edge. There were a couple of stories I didn't enjoy - one was the script of a short play - just because I felt like there wasn't anything very special about them. They were just quite boring and flat. Taking those out of the question, I'm glad I read the book, I definitely learnt some new folklore, but I wouldn't say anything in it was really amazing. 

I don't think anything else by Mosse is going to live up to The Labyrinth for me!

 

 

I started reading The Resurrectionist by James Bradley and I'm about a quarter of the way through at the moment. It's a book I found in a charity shop, it had a Victorian setting and the blurb sounded interesting, but when I added it to my goodreads list I realised it has some really bad reviews, so I've sort of been putting it off. I will say it's not the most exciting book I've ever read so far but I'm still interested enough to keep reading so we'll see!

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I think I have The Resurrectionist somewhere, was it a Richard and Judy book choice many years ago?  The Victorian setting appeals to me too.  Hope you like it.

 

Thanks :smile: Yeah it has a thing on the front saying 'Richard and Judy's Summer read.' It also has a quote on the front from Marcus Zusak recommending it and I really like his books so I definitely want to give it a chance. When I flicked through some of the reviews it seemed like it was the layout that bothered a lot of people (it's made up of very short sections) but I actually think it works.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Shame you didn't think The Mistletoe Bride was particularly amazing, it's one I was considering for a winter read.

 

I think the problem was the first couple of stories really got my hopes up and then the last two especially felt like a bit of a let down. Some of the stories in it were good though, if you can get it cheaply I would still say it's worth giving it a try. It's really not scary though so definitely don't get it with that expectation!

 

 

I don't mind short sections, makes it quicker to read!

 

Yeah actually that is something I really liked about it, it made me more likely to just pick it up and read a couple of pages when I had 5 minutes because that would finish a whole section  :D

 

So, as for an actual review:

 

The Resurrectionist byJames Bradley - Fast Paced but Lacking

 

Two of the criticisms I read about this book before I started was that it was split into annoyingly short sections and that the main character was not likeable. So, first of all I'm going to say I liked the short sections and I completely understand why the author used them and I think it's pretty clear that the reader is not supposed to like the main character. Basically, the book follows the life of a young man apprenticed to a renowned surgeon, written in first person from the view of this young man. As things start to spiral further out of control you do have to read between the lines a little, since obviously the narration is biased and the main character doesn't necessarily see the whole picture. I liked that, I thought it was clever and interesting although sometimes pretty disturbing too, as it was supposed to be. I was literally all ready to give it a really good review and say I don't know why some people rated it so badly until I got to very, very near the end, where I became so confused I literally checked to see if my copy of the book was missing pages. I can't say much without spoilers but there is basically a section at the end of the book that is like reading a completely different book. In a way it was clever, but I don't think it worked and ultimately it made me feel as though we had abandoned the original story and let it fall flat. It also didn't feel very believable.

It was a very interesting concept, I enjoyed it probably more than I expected to but I think the last part really let it down.

 

 

After I finished The Resurrectionist I started reading Only We Know by Karen Perry and finished it in a couple of days because I had to know what happened at the end :D  

 

Only we Know by Karen Perry - A Really Good Mystery

 

This isn't exactly an amazing life changing book and it doesn't do anything incredibly new but it was such a good mystery! It had really good pace, lots of unexpected twists and some good unique characters. It's the kind of mystery that unravels itself a piece at a time, using three different perspectives to gradually open everything up. I would hate to give anything away but if you want a good, gripping, easy-to-read, psychological mystery, this one is worth reading.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The Shakespeare Secret by J.L. Carrell - Well Researched Literary Thriller

 

A friend recommended this book to me years ago, she absolutely loved it so I found a copy but then didn't get round to reading it until now  :P. I think I was worried that it could just be wildly inaccurate for the sake of making the plot more exciting but it actually seems very well researched and the author includes a section at the end explaining the origin of the facts and stating where she altered them for the story (which actually isn't that much).

The plot itself I really liked, it was definitely gripping and had a lot of unexpected twists and tense moments. The way various Shakespeare plays get twined into the plot was quite interesting and clever too. As far as negatives go there were a couple of moments where things started to get a bit clichéd and, particularly in the few sections which went back into the past, there were sometimes so many characters which had been only briefly mentioned and therefore didn't have anything very defining about them, it got a bit confusing.

Enjoyable to read overall though.

 

 I've actually had a really interesting week when it comes to books! First a friend gave me a load of Iain M. Banks books, which had been given to them originally but they don't read. Then I went to a different friends house, got into a conversation about books (which turned out to be really awkward when I discovered I was the only person in the room who read for fun!) and my friend opened a cupboard which was literally full of boxes of books they had bought but never read! They told me to borrow whatever I wanted and started piling books into my arms (I have good friends :P ) so since I last posted here I now have:

 

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit

Irish Ghost Stories ed. David Stuart Davies

Written in Bone by Simon Beckett

Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov ed. Robert Chandler

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness  

 

and by Iain M. Banks:

 

Matter

Excession

The Algebraist

Feersum Endjinn

Use of Weapons

The Player of Games

Inversions

Consider Phlebas

 

I've never read anything by Banks before so I'm really hoping I like him now!  :giggle2: I also can't fit them all on my bookshelf so I'm going to have to try and sort out some books at some point! Since my shelve are probably going to change a lot between now and the end of the month I'm going to leave my list on this thread as it is and add these in to the new one I'll start for next year.

 

Because the first lot of books are borrowed I feel like I need to read those first so I can return them as soon as possible. I've started with The Railway Children. I know I watched the film when I was younger and used to like it but I can barely remember anything about it now. It shouldn't take me too long to read, it's only a small book so I should be back soon  :D

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The Shakespeare Secret seems very interesting, I'll keep an eye out for it! :) 

 

And as much as we'd all like to have friends who read books so we could talk about them, hurrah for friends who don't read and let you have a dig in their book cupboards :D You lucky gal! :D Nice haul!

 

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The Shakespeare Secret seems very interesting, I'll keep an eye out for it! :)

 

And as much as we'd all like to have friends who read books so we could talk about them, hurrah for friends who don't read and let you have a dig in their book cupboards :D You lucky gal! :D Nice haul!

 

There`s a second book as well, called  the Shakespeare Curse. There are potboiler-ish, but I liked them well enough. :) 

 

Ditto on the friends with books which needed adopting ! :D

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Haha, thanks everyone  :D yes, I have been very lucky and even though most of the friends I physically see don't read, I get to come and talk about books with all you lovely people, so I'd call that a win/win situation!  :giggle2:

 

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit - A Beautiful Message

 

This was such a lovely book to read. At it's heart, and perhaps when read by a child, The Railway Children is about adventure, the kind that three children can have playing in the countryside and meeting new, very different, friends. That is basically what I was expecting and it's true that the story is made up of a series of adventures the three children have. But as an adult, there is so much more going on. Nesbit has quite delicately managed to include messages about freedom of speech and political exile, the importance of imagination and of storytelling and, most of all, the power of honesty and kindness. The narrative voice has that comforting tone of a parent reading you a story. It's also quite subtly funny at times and has a conspiratorial edge, as though you as the reader are being let in to a secret. The way it portrays the thoughts and emotions of the children is brilliant and just feels very honest.

It was, overall, just a beautiful book to read :smile: 

 

I think I'm going to go with Irish Ghost Stories next. It has stories by ten different authors, some very famous, like Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde and others I've never heard of. I sort of wish I'd had this at Halloween when it would have felt more appropriate though  :P

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